Pi-4

Its story

Pi-4 Orionis forms part of the shield that Orion the Hunter raises against the charging horns of Taurus. It is a hot blue B-type giant, one of those massive stars that live fast and burn at brutal temperatures before exhausting themselves in a few million years. Its light takes more than a thousand years to reach us: what we see tonight set out before the Normans crossed the English Channel, and crosses space with the electric blue characteristic of the youngest, most violent stars.